Macworld Help: MobileMe gallery alternatives

Alternatives to MobileMe's gallery

I currently have a website that’s linked to my MobileMe image gallery, however, I’ve recently discovered that Apple is planning to close down this service sometime this year. Is there any way that I can keep my gallery and continue to link it to my website?Truman Lyon

You’re correct. As of June 2012, galleries, iDisk, and Apple-hosted websites are due to disappear. Fortunately, you have some options with regard to your photo galleries. Flickr, for example, allows you to upload up to 200 photos for free. To post more than this, you must upgrade to a Flickr Pro account, which costs around £16 per year. Flickr has many advantages, including multiple ways to tag your images and an emphasis on sharing pictures with others. It’s also an export option within iPhoto, and you can access it from an Apple TV too.

Google’s Picasa is a free option. With this, not only can you share 1GB of photos, but you can also edit them using Google’s Picasa Mac software.

SmugMug is another paid-for service. For £26 per year, you can upload an unlimited number of photos (a plan that includes video uploading costs £38), as well as embed Flash slideshows in forum and blog posts. Its galleries are also far more polished-looking than either Flickr’s or Picasa’s (see above). If you want your images to look their best, SmugMug’s the way to go.

SmugMug’s photo galleries are much more attractive than Flickr’s or Picasa’s